Covid effect on Eurozone accounts, debt over 100% for the first time

by time news

Time.news – At the end of the first quarter of 2021, still strongly influenced by the political measures aimed at mitigating the economic and social impact of the coronavirus pandemic and by the stimulus measures, the ratio between public debt and GDP in the eurozone exceeded for the first time 100% time: the ratio stood at 100.5% compared to 97.8% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020.

In the EU, the ratio went from 90.5% to 92.9%. Compared to the first quarter of 2020, the ratio of public debt to GDP increased both in the euro area (from 86.1% to 100.5%) and in the EU (from 79.2% to 92.9%). %). This is what emerges from the data published by Eurostat.

The highest ratios between public debt and GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2021 were recorded in Greece (209.3%), Italy (160%), Portugal (137.2%), Cyprus (125.7%), Spain (125.2%), Belgium (118.6%) and France (118.0%) and the lowest in Estonia (18.5 %), Bulgaria (25.1%) and Luxembourg (28.1%). Compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, 23 Member States recorded an increase in their public debt ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2021, two others showed a decrease, while it remained unchanged in Slovakia and Bulgaria. The strongest increases in the ratio were observed in Cyprus (+6.5 percentage points), the Czech Republic (+6.3 pp), Spain (+5.3 pp), Slovenia (+5.2 pp), Belgium ( +4.4 pp), Malta and Italy (+ 4.2% each).

In the first quarter of 2021, the ratio between deficit and GDP stood at 7.4% in the eurozone and 6.8% in the EU, down but still at a high level. This is what Eurostat reports. In the first quarter of 2021, most Member States continued to run a government deficit.

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